The IFSB Summit 2017 will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates will be hosting this year's Summit.

The IFSB Summit 2017, themed “Reinvigorating the Momentum of Islamic Finance: Solidifying Resilience and Sustaining Growth” will take place against the backdrop of a world economy that is undergoing a paradigm shift resulting from the new uncertainties emerging from a changing global geopolitical landscape, evolving monetary policy tightening in the US, sluggish recovery in oil prices and a general uncertainty in economic outlook. These factors, combined with lagged precedents from the earlier years, have contributed towards a general slowdown in the global economy, the impact of which has also been felt across the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI) where some sectors of the industry have been experiencing a slowdown in recent times.

The IFSB Summit 2017 seeks to discuss the issues and challenges facing the IFSI in the present conditions with a view to finding opportunities to reinvigorate the growth momentum across the various sectors while solidifying resilience of the institutions offering Islamic financial services. These efforts need to be considered in conjunction with supportive policy reforms by the regulatory and supervisory authorities, particularly at this time of on-going implementation of post-financial crisis strengthened regulatory requirements.

The sustained increase in domestic market share over the last decade has enabled the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI) to gain sizeable traction in a number of jurisdictions. There are now at least 12 jurisdictions where Islamic banking is identified to have systemic importance for the domestic banking sector. These trends indicate Islamic finance is now gradually moving towards achieving mainstream concentration.

What doors to opportunities could be further unlocked for the stakeholders?

What would be the issues and challenges to this path of transformation?

This Session aims to look into and discuss the widespread launch of financial technology platforms globally, which has begun to change the shape of how traditional banking and financial transactions are carried out, particularly by the age group of millennials. More so, FinTech and P2P platforms are beginning to partake financing activities that the traditional banking models have generally not participated deeply in. These include microfinance to individuals and business financing to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

How has this development affected the traditional financial institutions – do FinTech and P2P platforms complement, or substitute, traditional banking and finance services?

This session aims to highlight:

• The rise of FinTech / P2P platforms and their impact on the financial market place

• The response of the traditional financial institutions to the FinTech Boom

• The relevance and applicability of Sharīʻah-compliant contracts to FinTech transactions

The Session aims to discuss the post-financial crisis regulatory reforms, which have underscored the importance of systemic risk and a macro-prudential approach towards financial-sector risk management, as well as unrolled a more stringent capital and liquidity adequacy framework. Regulatory and supervisory authorities (RSAs) have now started to implement these reforms and institutions offering Islamic financial services (IIFS), being under their regulatory mandate, also have to comply with such guidelines.

How enabled is the market infrastructure in supporting the IIFS to meet these revised financial regulations?

What types of financial safety-nets arrangements and liquidity management instruments are available for the IIFS?

Given a condition where there is a lack of supporting Sharīʻah-compliant instruments, how do the RSAs adopt flexibility (if any) to accommodate IIFS?

What is the rule of thumb when it comes to implementing regulations with a view to balancing between soundness and competitiveness of the IIFS?

How do RSAs treat IIFS within their broader macro-prudential framework?

This session aims to highlight:

• Key highlights of the Basel III / IFSB second generation prudential standards and their impact on IIFS

• The challenges for the IIFS in meeting these new financial regulations

In the post-financial crisis years, Islamic capital market (ICM) has also become a viable alternative source for raising funds by sovereigns, quasi-sovereigns (Ministries/Central Banks, etc.) government-related entities and market players, with Ṣukūk being a particularly preferred instrument. These funds have been raised to support a variety of budgetary needs including to fund development expenditures, meet working capital needs, and finance infrastructure projects, etc. The fund raising has not been restricted to Muslim-majority countries, and a number of non-Muslim majority states have also participated in ICM (e.g. via issuing Ṣukūk, listing Sharīʻah-compliant funds, etc). A key facilitator for ICM, going forward, will be greater harmonisation in the issuance and trading of Islamic securities on cross border platforms.

This session aims to highlight:

• The role of Islamic capital market in facilitating fund-raising for issuers

• The challenges emanating from divergent practices between jurisdictions in relation to ICM products

• The opportunities for greater cross-border collaboration and business expansion

• The need for harmonising disclosure practices between jurisdictions in relation to ICM products

The stakeholders of the IFSI, each, need to play their due role in reinvigorating momentum in the IFSI while sustaining its stability and resilience. RSAs need to continue the development and implementation of facilitative prudential, legal and regulatory architecture for the IIFS. The market players themselves need to ensure sound risk management principles are in place keeping in view the specificities of Islamic financial transactions. The international standard setters should continue pushing forward the reform agenda by way of providing further guiding principles and technical notes on diverse subject matters in relation to the IFSI including on resolution, recovery and insolvency structures of the IIFS, Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) safeguards in IIFS transactions, upholding of consumer protection in IFSI products and services, etc.

This session aims to highlight:

• The key challenges and issues for the IFSI from the current global economic and political conditions and measures to address them

• The role of the various IFSI stakeholders in faring through this period with a view to achieving growth and sustainability

• The expected challenges for the IFSI (if any) in the near future

• In general, the way forward for the IFSI to weather through turbulent times and achieve greater heights

13:00 - 14:00

Lunch

Disclaimer: Please be advised that the above mentioned agenda points are tentative and that the IFSB reserves the right to make any necessary amendments/changes to the programme without prior notification.